Pet care costs and social care charges
For those of us concerned about the high level of local authority charges as well as those sceptical of about the ‘personal budgets’ agenda this is an interesting piece of research.
Not infrequently, as the attached report notes, proponents of personal budgets have used the anecdote of a person using their personal budgets to buy a dog as an innovative/ transformative way of addressing their well-being needs. Of course this is evidence of the potential of a direct payment (not a personal budget) – but putting this to one side the Cerebra Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving (LEaP) Project report finds many disabled and older people are unable to afford to keep a pet dog or cat due to the impact of council charges.
The research finds that eight out of ten councils would not make allowances for pet care expenses ‘in any circumstances’ when calculating the charges people were required to pay. As a result many disabled and older people (for whom their pet is vital to their well-being) will be at risk of severe hardship.
To download the report (which has a ‘summary’), click here.
Posted 9 July 2018